Tradução de "bare-knuckle"

Dears Friends,I would appreciate if you can help me. I have read this expression in a article in The Economist.com:

"ON THE Indian subcontinent, as in no other part of the world, women have risen to the pinnacle of politics. Indira Gandhi of India, Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan and Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar are all famous names. Less well known is that Sri Lanka was the first country ever to elect a woman prime minister, or that it has also had a female president. For 22 of the past 25 years Bangladesh, a largely Muslim country with more people than France and Germany combined, has been led by a woman. And the chief ministers of numerous country-sized Indian states, from West Bengal in the east to Tamil Nadu in the south, have also been women. India’s democracy is not pretty; these are the winners of bare-knuckle contests."

In a way of speaking we could say that is "briga feia/briga de foice/briga de cachorro grande", and others.

Indeed the imagery is that of two fighters in those ammateur bets in the streets, they would fight with bare knuckles (sem luvas). More often than not it ended in death, so it wasn´t a fight to the faint of heart to watch! Very competitive and (even) mortal...

Just as a follow up remark. I think "I would appreciate if you could help me." or "I will appreciate if you can help me." would be a better wording. Not that one doesn´t understand your question, far from it, just a matter of improving it (grammatically speaking). Your question was relevant and you are most welcome, feel free to come for more.